Oranga Tamariki, New Zealand’s child welfare agency, has been hit with a $108,000 legal bill for its mishandling of a case involving a Māori child, pseudonymized as “Moana,” in a botched attempt to remove her from her Pākehā foster parents, the Smiths.
Justice Helen Cull’s scathing High Court ruling slammed the agency for its “egregious” campaign to smear the foster parents, who had cared for Moana since 2018. Oranga Tamariki failed to find suitable whānau following her removal from her mother three times by age three.
The agency’s obsession with cultural placement appears to have overriden common sense, as it pushed to uproot Moana from the stable home of the Smiths in rural Hawke’s Bay to place her with a Māori mother and daughter in Wellington, who were already caring for Moana’s younger brother.
This decision, driven by a policy shift from Oranga Tamariki’s senior management, prioritized racial ties over Moana’s psychological attachment to the Smiths, who had provided her a secure environment.
The agency’s support for an appeal by Moana’s mother, which was dismissed in November 2022, only compounded the damage, with fresh allegations falsely claiming the Smiths neglected Moana’s cultural needs.
Justice Cull called out Oranga Tamariki’s relentless efforts to discredit the Smiths, forcing them to defend themselves in court just to continue caring for Moana.
The agency’s actions were so indefensible that it was ordered to pay full indemnity costs, a rare measure reserved for exceptional misconduct.
Tragically, the Smiths ceased fostering Moana after the appeal due to relentless personal attacks, leaving Mrs. Smith to express hope that Moana is safe and happy, despite the agency’s reckless disruption of her life.
This case exposes Oranga Tamariki’s flawed priorities, where bureaucratic ideology trumped the child’s well-being, and its cultural fixation led to a costly, harmful overreach.
The agency’s national commissioner, Alison Cronin, meekly noted that it “abides by” the ruling and has paid the costs, but the damage to Moana, the Smiths, and public trust in the system is yet to be resolved.
